Mental Benefits Of Lifting Weights
Photo by Sven Mieke on Unsplash
Lifting weights isn’t just about improving physical health and appearance. It’s also about improving your mental health which contributes to your overall health.
Here are 5 reasons why lifting weights benefits your mental health.
Reason #1 – Building a Healthier Mindset
Lifting weights improves your self-talk and changes how you see yourself.
Before you started, you probably told yourself:
I could never be that disciplined
I am an absolute chocolate addict, I cannot give the stuff up
I'm so ashamed of my slip I feel discouraged
Once you start strength training your internal self-dialogue will change to:
I never miss a day of my workouts
I can choose when I want chocolate
I am someone who exercises and takes care of myself
You take on the mindset of someone healthier and stronger.
This transforms you because you start forming healthier habits and behaviors that support a healthier lifestyle and a healthier you.
You identify and hang out with people who are in good shape and exercise regularly and take on their behaviors.
You start adopting habits that are associated with living a healthier life, eating better, and watching your stress levels.
You stop dreaming of when you’ll be in shape, healthy, and strong and start becoming that person.
Reason #2 – Improving Your Self-Confidence
The confidence you gain in yourself and your capabilities starts to expand when you lift weights.
You walk down the street possessing a sense of confidence. Your posture sends a message to the world that you are in control and you are competent.
Being confident about who you are and what you’re about permeates other areas of your life.
Lifting weights will also help you in your relationships and your career.
Your self-confidence starts to rise as you take risks and put yourself out there in social situations.
You create more opportunities to build great relationships and attract people you want to meet because you don’t hold back from seeking social events to meet others.
Confident people are linked with higher income and having desirable characteristics for potential mates. They are more attractive than others who do not workout.
Reason #3 – Combating Depression and Anxiety
Over 300 million people globally live with depression and anxiety.
Exercise in any form releases endorphins, a feel-good hormone that combats the stress hormone cortisol, and lifting weights does the same thing.
After a workout, endorphins will flood the brain and reduce stress and anxiety so that you feel good about yourself afterwards.
Modern life is stressful and lifting doesn’t just help you feel good but it can help you reduce anxiety, think more clearly and solve problems more effectively
Reason #4 – Boost Brain Power to Stay Independent
We are all growing older but getting old is not inevitable and not all downhill as society would like you to believe. It’s a chance to get better and to grow stronger physically and mentally.
Lifting weights can boost our brain function and prevent cognitive decline. It can also delay and even improve cognitive functions such as memory, attention, and decision-making.
Having more muscles gives you the ability to get up and down the stairs without feeling winded, you’re able to move things around without hurting your back and get up easily if you fall or even catch yourself before you fall.
It combats those middle-age symptoms and transforms you into a younger person. Lifting weights builds muscle mass to give you the strength to take care of yourself and live independently.
Reason #5 – Improve Your Relationship with Your Body
Exercise can be used as a form of compensation or punishment because we hate the way we look in the mirror.
Lifting weights takes the focus of off how we look and instead focuses on how we can perform in the gym. Picking a weight up and putting it down is a great way to appreciate what our bodies can do, how they can perform, and show us strong we are both mentally and physically.
You can feel incredibly powerful by lifting weights.
It has a positive impact on our body image and can diminish our feelings of body dissatisfaction.
You get to look back on your performance and reflect on your accomplishments.
Reason #6 – Maintain Your Figure
Each year the average person gains 3-5 pounds a year.
As we get older we naturally become more sedentary leading to a slow decline in our muscle mass creating a vicious cycle of moving less because it becomes harder to move.
We don’t burn as many calories because we are moving less yet we are eating the same amount of food or more leading to weight gain.
You can increase and maintain your muscle mass to keep up your strength even if you’re a woman over 40.
When you lift heavy things off the ground your entire body needs to gather energy to lift it then recover from the effort. Put an hour a day, 3X a week of heavy lifting and your body is using up a lot of energy to do that.
Strength training gives you a little more leeway in your diet for an extra slice of cake or another serving of your favorite dish without adding to your beltline.
The benefits of lifting weights are more than about looking good but also about feeling good too. Hope this drives home on why you should get started lifting.
Candace is the owner of Rhodes To Strength. She provides weight loss and mindset coaching services to women around the world so that they keep the pounds off for good. She believes in working with clients to create sustainable habits that work for their lifestyles.
You can find her rollerskating, hiking, and bird watching in her spare time.